I got Video, you got Video, all God’s chillun’ got videos…
Social Media Bible, Chapter 13: Got Video? (Video Sharing)
This is a shorter chapter than some, and as in the audio chapters, this chapter is an extension of the previous chapter in which we learned about making video blogs, or vlogs. Now, in Chapter 13, the author gives us more information about how to share those videos with others. Unfortunately, I got that sinking feeling again when the author says “you and your company already have a box of VHS tapes or video on a hard drive somewhere.” (p.243) It sounds like he means just take any old videos and post them and you’ll be successful. The mere fact that a company might use old VHS tapes should tell you this couldn’t be very NEW material, and is that really what we want companies to be posting?
I’m sorry to say it seems like the book is now taking a turn toward “do it just because you can,” rather than “do it because it’s the right thing to do for your company.” We’re still hearing the ‘What’s In It For Me’ mantra, but are we really considering how to answer that for our customers? I understand the idea of building your “Google Juice” as explained by Mr. Safko (p. 243), but just because there are millions of people looking at websites like YouTube, does that REALLY make them millions of potential customers for my particular business?
To his credit, the author does a good job of explaining how easy it is to upload videos, and enjoins us to “Just do it…gather all the videos you have on hand and start uploading them to YouTube.” (p. 244) Sometimes you do just need to get in there and try something so you’ll feel comfortable with it. But then, he suggests “make sure you have your tags picked out ahead of time” and “build your video into an RSS feed.” The problem is that tags aren’t really explained until Chapter 19 and RSS feeds are in Chapter 18.
I appreciated the explanation of peer-to-peer file sharing: Napster, Kazaa, LimeWire, BitTorrent, but I’m not sure I understand why there aren’t still legal problems for those that came after Napster. (Since the publishing of the book, LimeWire has ceased distribution of their software, under court order.)
With my apologies to the author, here’s one more dig. One of his final thoughts is that companies don’t really have to be creative…just look at some videos on other sites that are attracting attention and “create a video with the same kind of general content…” (p. 250) So the idea is to copy someone else, just because it worked for them? I can’t quite buy that, and I’d hesitate making that suggestion to any of my clients.
Madsen Media 
Yes. Creativity and originality need to go together! And focus on the WIIFM as opposed to “Just do It.” The “Just Do It” I was getting and hoping to share is maybe “Just Try It,” as in, “don’t be afraid, you won’t learn how to do it if you don’t try it.” So focusing on figuring out how to use, develop and apply the social media application as opposed to sitting there paralyzed because you feel like you don’t know video or you don’t know audio or you don’t understand Twitter, etc. There are way to many people sitting there on the sidelines because of fear, don’t you think? Still, yes, the strategy is what’s important, not doing it because you can do it.